When I was young, it was an excuse to wear a creative outfit and get candy.In my college days, it was an excuse to party [while also wearing a creative outfit].Now, it's an excuse to buy and eat candy.

My how times change.

I handed out candy tonight to a bunch of adorable rug rats while Henry lurked in the background and Nate studied. By Henry 'lurking' I mean that he totally swiped two pieces of chocolate when I wasn't looking, and downed them in one gulp. Wrappers and all. At least he chose a Rolo and a mini-Reese's Peanut Butter Cup--he has great tastes in forbidden foods. I can't wait to see what happens with his digestive tract tonight!

Speaking of the devil, here is his festive tee shirt:

[Will do tricks for treats. His trick is to eat chocolate, apparently]

Now back to the point of my post: Halloween memories. Because I feel like reminiscing a bit I dug out my old college scrapbooks in the name of Halloween fun.

It is only because I care deeply for you readers that I am posting these pictures. Don't say I never did anything for you....some of these do not deserve internet time, but I cannot resist. All for the sake of a decent post, I present to you My Life in Halloween Costumes:

#1 1999. Our freshman year of college. I believe we are 'Julia Goolia Spice' and 'Hannah Banana Spice'. We are possibly related to the Spice Girls in some way, but mostly we fell prey to they common sport of dressing inappropriately just because it's Halloween. Shameful, really.#2 2000. Our sophomore year in college. As you can read in my caption, we are a 'Pure Angel' and 'Evil Angel.' I had to edit this one a bit but I cannot help but chuckle. The hooker boots are key, my friends.#3 2001. Junior year in college, fresh out of traveling abroad for a semester. In case you can't tell, I am a green M&M. I decided not to show you my white hooker boots again. One can only handle so much. Our sorority ruled, by the way.

#4 2003. [I believe I was visiting my then-boyfriend, Nate, in 2002 and thus missed out on the Halloween madness in 2002.] Hannah and I go as 'white trash' and hang out in the Central West End. We are now living off campus and obviously very attractive. That would be actual trash and plastic-wrap on our bodies.

#5 2005. [In 2004 I was living in Arkansas during Halloween during a clinical. Again, I missed the debauchery.] This year was a fun one, as we were officially out of college. Nate and Ryan are Ninja Turtles [yes, those are youth sized costumes] and Maggie and I are.......the ladies from Full House! Maggie is Stephanie, I am Michelle, and Lindsey is D.J. Why Michelle has to wear so much self-tanner, I don't know. And why D.J. has to sport those hideous bangs, I cannot say. Yikes.#6 2006. Again, with Maggie and Ryan we go as....Double Dare contestants!!!It is Henry's first Halloween and he doesn't quite know what to do with us. Kim and Mark go as the best costume ever: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and a nuclear missle. Iloveitsomuch.

And of course, once we were married and boring and stuff, we no longer dressed up for Halloween. Therefore, Double Dare is the last costume I donned.

But I won't stop there, my readers. Not only did my college years bring multiple Halloween parties but when you join a sorority you sign a waiver to attend at least 5 costume parties each yaer. True story. [or not].

The following outfits were not worn on Halloween, but on random 'events' out with the sorority. I do not remember dressing up this much, but it's probably for the best.

#1. The Rock Star switch with the Delta Sigs in 2000. Please guess what I am:If you guessed Missy Misdemeanor Elliott.....the African American, large rapper.....you are correct. Remember her trash bag shirt on one of her music videos? No? Okay, nevermind.

#2 Tacky Prom with the Pikes, spring of 2002. Yes, my friends, you might recognize this outfit because it's what I wore the night I met my future husband. Our relationship is special, let's leave it at that.

#3 Fall of 2002. I was a Pi Chi for recruitment week. That meant I disaffiliated and helped baby freshman during rush week. The Pi Chis all dressed up for one of the days of rush, and what did I wear?Um, that is me in the front dressed as Nelly. Please note that all of the other girls are cutsie, girlie, pretty characters. Then there is me, dressed as another African American rapper. I never claimed to be 'normal', okay?

#4 2003. Another Tacky Prom with the Pikes. The handsome fellow on the left would be Nate, and the other lads would be his future groomsmen. Yes, we are a beautiful bunch, I know.And that's it, my doves. Plenty of reminiscing for you complete with embarrassing photos of yours truly. I hope you enjoyed and pondered what hideous costumes you've worn in the past. Please tell me you've worn hideous costumes, too.

Abbey is an East Coast girl who married at Miami Beach, Florida. She is celebrating her one year anniversary next week which is perfect timing for her wedding album to arrive at her doorstep!

Abbey's photographer was Amy Hill and I love her artistic style. I suppose it doesn't hurt to live in Fort Lauderdale with nice weather and lots of sunshine, either.

Here are some of my favorite designs from Abbey's album and you can see the rest on my website under 'examples. All of these photos are by Amy Hill.

TAG:

I was tagged by the fabulous Grosgrain Lane a while ago and I'm never the best with responding to tags. So I'm making it a point to participate in this one.

All you have to do is list 6 things that bring you happiness. So here it goes:

1. Sleeping in on a non-work day, then bundling up in my warm fuzzy robe and making lots of coffee. Then sipping it throughout the morning while I work on the computer. [This is exactly what I'm doing right now, in case you were wondering] :)

2. Laying on the beach, under a hot sun, with a good book and good tunes. It ups my happiness if I have a fruity cocktail in hand...preferrably one with a tiny umbrella.

[our honeymoon in St. Lucia, fruity drinks included]

3. Wet, slobbery kisses from one Mr. Henry every night I come home from work. These include butt-wiggles and excited leaps towards my face. Bad puppy breath is part of the deal, too.

[Henry's first Christmas back in 2005. One of our first pictures together].

4. Trips back home to my parents' house, complete with home-cooked meals, girl talk/father-daughter time, and the familiarity of my home town. Hugs from Mom and Dad upon arrival are mandatory and thoroughly enjoyed.

[Christmas at home in 2007]

5. Reuniting with my St. Louis girlfriends after too many months without a visit. Reminiscing about the good old days and pondering the future. The feeling that you have the best friends in the world and knowing that will never change.

[Part of the crew]

6. Spending quality time with Nate--whether it be chatting during a long run, or standing at the sink to do dishes together. During a six hour road trip back to Missouri, or relaxing on the couch to watch TV. I value this time in our marriage before kids when we can focus on "us time." I wouldn't trade it for the world.

[Engagement pics by Michael Browers. I like this one and felt like posting it again.]

So that's it: 6 things that make me happy. Feel free to post your own list if you'd like!

It's been a while since I threw a miscellany post at you, but it's certainly time. Life has been hectic, hence the lack of posts. What happened to my weeks of 5 posts? I'm struggling with 2 per week these days. So sad.

1. I'm reading a new book for a book club I joined at work. It's called Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and so far I love it. It was big back in 2006....did anyone read it already? Let's just say the main character is a 90 year old man living in a nursing home: enough said, I'm sold. I love old people and used to work in a nursing home so this book makes me smile and miss my old patients back in St. Louis. I'll let you know how it turns out but I'm already engrossed!

2. I've started to get excited about Christmas, instead of dreading the winter in general. One thing that makes me REALLY happy is designing and making our Christmas cards, so of course my mind is already running wild with ideas. Here is what I made last year, since it was the year of our wedding and I figured everyone wanted to see one more wedding picture:) :

I used various Christmas papers for the front, the same picture and the same text. Then on the inside I wrote personalized messages and used some fun Christmas rubber stamps. Sigh. I love this stuff so much.

But now what? I don't have any recent 'nice' pictures of us from this year and I kind of want one of the whole family [duh, with Henry!]. I might have to contact a few of my photographer friends and inquire about prices for a little family session all in the name of Christmas cards. Is that overdone?

So here are some of my inspirations for this year from Tiny Prints. It's a great site with cute ideas....but I just can't bring myself to order our cards from a website. I have to do it by hand [at least for now, I'm sure someday I will laugh at myself for doing this early on in our marriage]. It's just something I thoroughly enjoy.

This baby is giving me The Fever, but also I love the print on this one:)

Um, pink and green on a holiday card? FABULOUS.

Flowers! Lots of them! In bright colors!

Still Christmas-y but not super traditional: just my style.

Which style do you like the best?

Another item rolling around in my head has to do with gifts: what in the heck should I get our parents, brothers, and grandparents this year? Last year I was so proud of my homemade wedding albums [paper and glue, not the modern digital albums.....I was so out of the loop a year ago!]. It took forever but I cranked out three albums for both sets of parents, plus Memaw and Pepaw. They were a hit and inexpensive....my goal every year! But again, I can only make gifts from our wedding for the first year and then I become that creepy girl who can't get over her wedding....that was 1.5 years ago.

Non-creepy ideas are much welcomed.

3. Henry got his monthly haircut 2 weeks late. Whoops! But he is blindingly white this time, which just proves how dirty he was before the cut. Look how happy he is with his fresh groom:

See? So white!

Perfect time for a photo-op: when you can see his eyes again.

The only worrisome part of the grooming encounter? The fact that he came home with this ultra feminine ribbon/flower thing on his collar:Nate was obviously mortified that our male dog pranced around with this all day. Somehow I think Henry liked it, though, which is even more disturbing.

4. I'm running again but it seems that I'm suffering a potential injury these days. Ever since the marathon my right knee has been acting crazy every time I run. It's all: No you don't, you crazy biyatch. You ran way too much a few weeks ago and now I'm going to protest any more pounding on the pavement. And I'm all: Shut up and just run, I don't want to lose everything I worked so hard to achieve this year.

So yeah, we ran in a 15k on Saturday [9.3 miles] and overall I felt great....if it weren't for my pesky knee. I'm pretty sure it's just tendonitis or a severe strain and it will heal but it's still quite annoying. I'm just doing 3 or 4 milers during the week with some longer guys each weekend but apparently my knees don't appreciate the lesser mileage. I truly think my knees belong to a 70 year old sometimes. Or maybe that's just me edging towards the big 3-0 with every day that passes.

5. They called for snow this weekend. It didn't produce anything, which is good, because if it was already snowing in October I might fling myself from a window. No joke. I have to run with gloves and hats now, you guys. It's getting down to 31 degrees at nighttime. It's so sad.

6. I rarely talk about work, and I'm still going to refrain....except to say that I have my first P.T. student starting next month! This will be her first clinical and she is my first student so I'm extra excited. Basically, in P.T. you have to do your time as a 'free health care professional' like all other disciplines. You pay full tuition to your school to work full time as a student in various settings. You can go all over the USA if you wish, depending on the contracts your school holds. Your clinicals are where you really learn what you need to survive in the real world and without Clinical Instructors [or C.I.---your teachers in the clinic] nobody would become a P.T.

I volunteered to be a C.I. because I love to teach while watching students grow into practitioners. There's nothing quite like seeing a scared little student gain confidence and appreciation for their future career. I never thought of myself as a teacher but in this sense [not in the classroom, but in the workforce] I really enjoy it. I hope it all goes well and she likes me! I hope she's smart so I don't have to fail her [just kidding....sort of. That rarely happens. Please God, let her be smart].

7. In our efforts to be more domesticated, we spent $20 on Halloween candy this weekend. Ouch! You know how some people buy the kinds they personally hate so they aren't tempted to eat the candy themselves? Yeah, not us. We went all out with pimped out combo packs:

The other bag has Hershey's milk chocolate bars, Hershey's special darks, Kit Kats, Reese's PB cups [drool!], and Rolos [double drool!!]. I picked this baby and it was well worth the money, don't you agree? If we don't get many trick-or-treaters guess who gets to gorge themselves on chocolate?!?

and spend way too much time peeling, slicing, and coring them. But they look really pretty...

Then you use a store-bought crust because you aren't THAT adventurous. Take the pretty apples...

And turn them into this cinnamon/sugar delight...You'll decide to make a crumble crust for added sugar...And 50 minutes later you get this...Add the ice cream, carmel sauce, and about 5 pounds to your arse...[one of these days I'm going to stop eating like I did during training. I'm not exactly burning thousands of extra calories anymore but I just can't stop eating like a man!]

Project domestication part two: Carving Pumpkins!

You take two perfect pumpkins fresh out of the patch...

And get rid of the guts. Your dog will quite like this part and beg to lick the innards...

Start carving away freehand [no stencils, no pre-planning!]...

And create this bad boy...

The dog will want to lick this, too...

Husband will make an odd pumpkin, then try to imitate the facial expression...

So you'll do the same [scariest face ever!]...

Place the jack-o-lanterns on your porch [a dangerous one without railings] to announce your domestication....

And make sure to take lots of pictures, duh!...

[Why is Nate's pumpkin all fragile and girlie while mine is masculine and frightening? And what is that random ring on Nate's creation? He says it might be an upper lip ring but he isn't sure, either. Never question the work of an artist, you guys.]